Panto enthusiasts are being asked to “Name the Dame” in a contest in advance of the annual Christmas production.

The Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society (BMDS) will be performing “Ali Baba and the 14 Thieves” this year.

“We can’t afford 40,” quipped the pantomime’s director and writer, Carol Birch.

While Ms Birch has many of the pieces in place for the production — which will see actor Gavin Wilson as the dame — a name for this crucial character has yet to be settled upon.

“Gavin Wilson is playing Ali Baba’s mother a.k.a. Mrs. Baba in this year’s pantomime,” Ms Birch said.

“But so far we do not have a name for her! Please help by submitting your suggestions for Name the Dame to namethedame[AT]bmds.bm or put them in an envelope with your name and phone number and leave it at the Daylesford Theatre, Dundonald Street, opposite Victoria Park.

“All submissions should be received by November 17.”

The winner of the Name the Dame contest will receive four tickets to the December 11 performance of the panto along with a backstage tour and photograph with the cast.

“So, get in the action and help Carol name the dame!” Ms Birch pleaded.

Mr. Wilson has played a number of dames over the years but told The Royal Gazette <$>it is not a role in which he was instantaneously successful.

And his first experience as a Dame was working with Jonathan Owen, who is considered to be one of the UK’s top three stage dames.

“I got in by accident when someone who was playing the role in ‘Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood’ didn’t realise what the role entailed,” Mr. Wilson said.

“She was going to be played by Beverly Crick, but she had to go to New York. So I said, let’s just turn this thing around and I’ll play the dame.

“It was so over the top and I get in and meet Jonathan, who is just this consummate professional.”

Rehearsals started at City Hall and Mr. Wilson believed he was holding his own.

“After rehearsals he tells everyone that they can leave, but asked me if I minded staying,” Mr. Wilson said.

“So I figured that he was going to congratulate me on the wonderful job I was doing. But instead he turns to me and says, ‘you don’t have a god damn clue as to what you are doing, do you?’

“My first impulse was to pulverise him and I counted to ten and I didn’t. I asked, ‘I don’t?’ And he said, ‘No man, pantomime is vaudeville. When you are on a stage, you are on acid baby, you are woowww, you bring everybody with you.’”

Mr. Owen then told Mr. Wilson that he did not even know how to tell a joke.

“I know how to tell a joke,” he countered.

“But Mr. Owen said, ‘In pantomime you say, ‘We’re in the forest, we’re in the forest... the audience knows the punch line — they just want to hear you say it.’

“I learnt more from that guy, I really did — it was just a wonderful education where you bring the audience in, because it is the only theatre where you break the forth wall.”

But the role has its subtleties too, he added.

“There is a huge difference — it is not a drag role at all and this is where Jonathan said, ‘you have to be so careful, because it is all in your moves.’”

The movements are softer and not so flamboyant although one does not hide that fact that he is a male.

“The whole thing is that you are playing on yourself,” he said.